 (CHARLOTTE,
NC)--When
Dr. Condoleezza Rice spoke to more than 500 Johnson C. Smith
University students Monday morning, she didn’t focus on national
security.
Instead, Rice talked about JCSU’s importance to her personally
and also reminded students that they should value their
education at a Historically Black College or University.
Her father, the late John Rice graduated from Johnson C. Smith
in 1946 with a degree in history. He later came back and
received a seminary degree and became a Presbyterian Minister.
Rice reminisced about the years she spent on the JCSU campus as
a little girl when her father would come back to visit Charlotte
and attend conferences for Presbyterian ministers.
“The last time I was here on campus was when I was
11-years-old,” Rice told a crowd inside the Jane M. Smith
Memorial Church. “JCSU has really grown and made a lot progress
since those days,” she said.
Rice stressed the importance of attending and supporting
Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
“It’s a place where we can celebrate our traditions,” Rice said.
She also said HBCU’s came at a time when it was the only choice
African-Americans had to go to receive higher education
training.
She shared with the crowd a story of how her grandfather was a
sharecropper in Alabama and had saved money to attend Stillman
College. After completing the first year, he was told that he
also had to pay for next year’s tuition. When he explained to
them he had no money, they told him he had to leave.
Being a quick thinker, her grandfather then asked how some of
the other men were able to pay for college and he was told they
had scholarships for seminary training to become Presbyterian
Ministers.
“And
he said that’s exactly why I am here,” she said.
Her grandfather was the first in a line of Presbyterian
Ministers in the Rice family.
Rice ended her short 15-minute talk by encouraging students not
to go into a major because of a specific job.
“The jobs will come. The key is to find your passion.”
Click here for
Condoleezza Rice's Biography
|
